The status of end-users of a communication system may be an important piece of information. It may be useful, for example for a calling party to know whether a called party is unable to answer a call because she is asleep or driving. In addition, it may be useful to know whether the called party is at work and unable to take personal calls or in a meeting and will be able to take calls after a specified time. Currently, there is no way for a calling party to know the status of the called party without actually speaking to them. Similarly, a calling party may want to inform the called party of his status. For example the calling party may be about to board an airplane and be unavailable for several hours. Status information may also be valuable for other types of communication. For example, it may be useful for a party sending a short messaging system (SMS) message to another party to know that the other party is currently unable to respond.
Hence, there is a need for a user of a communication system to be able to inform other users of their current status.